The Minister of Trade and Industry, Ekow Spio Garbrah says it is “sad” the Christian fraternity has neglected jailed Montie trio who threatened the lives of some Supreme Court judges.

He said, despondent Montie 3 convicts complained to him bitterly when he visited them last Thursday at the Nsawam Maximum Prisons.

“They are really sad that no Ghanaian pastor has visited them for prayers. Not even a single one, so I stood together with my colleagues and prayed for them. I know their pains will never last. Hopefully the president and council of state will consider the petition and pardon them,” he said.

“I did not ask them about Muslim (clerics) but men of God in general irrespective of their religion have not visited them and that is their worry,” he added on NEAT FM’s morning show dubbed Ghana Montie.

The Supreme Court handed a four-month prison sentence to the Host of ‘Pampaso’ political show on Accra-based Montie FM, Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, and the two panelists, Alistair Nelson, and Godwin Ako Gunn, for threatening to kill judges of the Supreme Court during a radio discussion.

The three were also fined Ghc30, 000, with each of them paying Ghc10, 000. Failure to pay the amount according to the Court, would have attracted another one-month prison term.

Their lawyers, some bigwigs in the NDC and party supporters have signed a petition book for the president to pardon them.

However, the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Most Rev. Joseph Osei Bonsu, has criticized those calling on President John Mahama to grant a presidential pardon to the Montie trio.

Rev. Osei Bonsu held that any attempt to change the judgement of the bench will undermine the Judiciary and the principle of separation of powers.

“Why put pressure on the President to grant a pardon? If you do that, then it means that from now on, anytime the Supreme Court jails a person, the president will have to come in and grant a pardon. In any case, it is not the first time that Supreme Court has jailed people” he said.

source dailyviewgh.com